An Australian Town Has Homes, Churches And Hotels Underground

From Above, Part Of The Town Seems To Be Missing

Deep in the South Australian outback sits a town called Coober Pedy.

At first glance, the landscape looks almost empty.

The ground is dry and dusty. Strange mounds rise from the earth. Buildings appear scattered across an enormous desert landscape.

But some of the town is somewhere you cannot immediately see.

It is underground.

Coober Pedy is famous for its “dugouts,” homes and other spaces excavated directly into the earth. Residents originally embraced underground living partly as a practical way to escape the intense desert heat. South Australia

It All Started With Opals

Coober Pedy’s unusual story is closely connected to one very colorful gemstone.

Opal.

Opal was discovered in the area in 1915, attracting miners hoping to find valuable deposits beneath the desert. South Australia

Mining meant digging into the surrounding rock.

Eventually, people discovered that those excavated spaces had another very useful purpose.

They could become homes.

Instead of constructing everything above the scorching ground, residents could expand underground spaces into bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, and entire houses.

Underground Homes Stay Surprisingly Comfortable

The Australian outback can become brutally hot.

Underground, temperatures are much more stable.

South Australian tourism information describes dugout homes as maintaining relatively consistent temperatures throughout the year, reducing exposure to the extremes experienced at the surface. South Australia

Walk through an ordinary-looking doorway cut into a hillside and you may enter a full home surrounded by rock.

Some have several bedrooms.

Some have large living spaces.

Modern underground properties can have electricity, plumbing, kitchens, internet access, and many of the comforts found in conventional houses.

The walls just happen to be part of the Earth.

They Did Not Stop At Houses

Once you can build a house underground, why stop there?

Coober Pedy has become known for underground churches, shops, hotels, museums, and other spaces. South Australia

Visitors can even spend the night underground.

The town has hotels and other accommodations built into the sandstone, allowing travelers to experience dugout living without moving permanently to the Australian desert. South Australia

The Landscape Looks Like Another Planet

More than a century of opal mining has left another unusual mark on Coober Pedy.

The surrounding landscape contains countless piles of excavated earth and mining sites.

Combined with the dry terrain and sparse vegetation, the region can look almost extraterrestrial.

South Australia’s tourism authority describes the area’s appearance as lunar-like, and filmmakers have taken advantage of it. Movies have used the region’s unusual landscape as a dramatic backdrop. South Australia

It is easy to understand why.

Parts of Coober Pedy look less like an ordinary Australian town and more like a settlement on another planet.

Underground Does Not Mean Primitive

The word “cave” might make you picture a dark hole containing little more than a bed and a light bulb.

That is not necessarily what you find in Coober Pedy.

Some dugouts have been transformed into elaborate modern homes.

Natural rock can remain visible on interior walls while rooms contain ordinary furniture, appliances, lighting, and decorations.

The result is an unusual combination of ancient shelter and modern living.

A Town That Adapted Instead Of Fighting The Desert

People have invented countless ways to deal with extreme climates.

We build heating systems in cold regions.

We install air conditioning where summers become hot.

In Coober Pedy, residents found another solution.

They used the landscape itself.

The same earth that contained the opals people came searching for also offered protection from the desert temperatures above.

And that has given this remote Australian community an identity unlike almost anywhere else.

You can drive into town and see houses and businesses around you.

But to discover some of the most interesting places in Coober Pedy, there is only one direction to go.

Down.

Sources: South Australian Tourism Commission and official South Australia visitor information.